What is that rattle?

[Guest]

Hello all,

Okay, now I believe there must be others that have had the rattle that this 96 Sunfire has coming from the area behind the back seat. The reason I think there are others with the rattle...the 98 Cavalier that my daughter drove for 7or 8 years had the same rattle, only on the opposite side, and I never did locate the source.

The rattle is on the right side, and seems to be coming from the area under the back seat.
It sounds like something is loose on either the suspension, or someone tied a weight on a sting inside the quarter panel. As anyone that has ever worked on the back end of one of these cars knows, there's not a whole lot of things that can cause a rattle back there.

It really sounds like the rattle is coming from the folding seat, or the trunk, but when the seat is removed, the rattle is still there, and everything has been removed from the trunk.

The sound reminds me of the sound that would be heard when the bushings on a shock, or stabilizer link were worn out.

I'm stumped. I spent a lot of time looking for the source of the rattle in the kids Cavalier over the years, and I never did find it. Now this Sunfire has a similar rattle on the opposite side? WT?

Any ideas? You'll need to be creative, because all of the obvious things have been looked at, right down to someone dropping something into the fuel tank.

Oh yeah, the rattle starts when the car hits about 5 mph, and road conditions have no effect. It'll rattle on a perfectly smooth road.

Thanks for any tips on what might possibly be making this rattle.

 

[melsg5]

You've had the car on a lift and tried shaking the exhaust system? Checked for broken heat shield welds? How about the upper strut bushing?

 

[Guest]

You've had the car on a lift and tried shaking the exhaust system? Checked for broken heat shield welds? How about the upper strut bushing?

Haven't had the car on a lift yet, no access to one. But I did have look around under there while the car was on stands.
The exhaust runs on the opposite side of the car from the noise, so I doubt that it is the source. But I'll double check it.
The last time I took one of the rear struts out of a J model, it didn't appear to have any parts that could become loose and rattle, such as bearings or bushings. But I'll check the strut in the Sunfire just to be sure.

I'm trying to recall if the PO said the fuel pump had been replaced. If so, maybe the tank is loose. Geez, having the tank fall out @ 60 mph would be interesting, more so for the person tailgating me.lol

Thanks for the thoughts.